Q:More from me again. For the back story, please see here: http://www.consolidation-debt.tk/showthread.html?t=555690
I thought I'd better start a new thread and attempt to summarise…
- We're on a two month notice period and handed our notice in, but will be out of the flat after a month. Agreed with landlord that our tenancy will end as soon as he gets new tenants and he'll start advertising immediately
- Landlord has said he wants to go in and fit a new bathroom during our notice period – whilst we're still paying rent and therefore not advertising for new tenants until it's done
- We've said we're not happy paying rent whilst he fits the bathroom, regardless of whether we'll actually be living there
- He's come back to say he views the refit as ''routine, necessary maintenance', that it will only take three days and that the flat will be perfectly habitable throughout – I have my doubts!
My current questions are:
- Can we refuse to let him refit the bathroom? Even though he thinks it won't make any difference to the habitability (is that a word?!) of the flat
- We've been living there for 18 months and someone's mentioned something about not being able to have a two month notice period after a year. Can someone clarify that for us? I'm not sure what sort of tenancy it is (and the paperwork's at home).
Thanks for any help!
Jen
Good luck
If you are on a month to month agreement you need only give one period (a month) notice. it doesn't maater what it says in the tenancy agreement (people often ask for more notice) because local requests do not override statute…the law, which is clear on this subject, always prevails.
If you are on a fixed term agreement, you cannot exit the agreement before the end of the fixed period (usually 6 months) without the LL agreement.
You are probably on a periodic agreement, and thus (LEGALLY) need only give him 1 period's notice.
Make sure, however, that the notice period coincides with your rental period so if your rent is due on 24th of the month, you should give written notice of 1 month beginning 24th of September to expire on 23rd October.
If you give notice after the next rent due date so, say on the 28th of September, the LL can say that the notice has not been served correctly (has to coincide with a rental period) so won't accept it to take effect until the next month……this may mean that you could be expected to pay for nearly 2 months rent and this is perfectly legal!
In practice, I never stick to the rules that tightly and will accept notice of one month at whatever point…but I could if I wanted to be pedantic.
This is what (quoted) the law says:
Termination of a periodic tenancy
If the tenancy has no fixed term, the tenant must provide notice in writing of their intention to leave. The tenant must give at least 4 weeks notice where rent is paid on a weekly basis and at least a month's notice where rent is paid on a monthly basis, expiring at the end of a period of the tenancy.
I'm beginning to wonder just how valid the contract is…
Maybe if there was some serious fault with the bathroom that was endangering you, the structure of and any other people in the building then you would need to allow work to go ahead.
From the sounds of it he just wants to improve the aesthetics of the bathroom to encourage new tenants to live there and/or command a higher rent.
Speaking from experience your landlord is on another planet if he thinks your bathroom would be fully functioning during the "3 days" of work (I speak from recent experience! Fortunately I had an overlap period of 3 weeks where I was still renting my old place whilst renovating the one I'd just bought and thank goodness since the toilet and bathtub were in my lounge for 2 days!!)
So in answer to your question, if the work is just for aesthetic reasons then yes, you can say no to the works. (Or tell him you want putting up in your choice of hotel for the duration of the works).
Regarding the 2 months notice, I'm assuming you signed a new contract after a year, so your notice period should be in there.